The “Coalition for Change” — the Democratic Alliance and the Inkatha Freedom Party — is going to be the black alternative to the ruling African National Congress, say officials of the opposition parties.
One could count on one’s fingers the number of white faces at the rally on Sunday in Soweto where the coalition was launched. A substantial portion of the 10 000 mostly young people gathered at the amphitheatre had been bussed in from around Gauteng. Black DA members with the blue party emblem emblazoned on their T-shirts mingled with the IFP members wearing shirts decorated with portraits of party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi.
Gauteng DA leader Jack Bloom told the Mail & Guardian: “We have more branches in the townships than in the urban areas. Suburban people are opting out of politics.”
DA spokesperson Nick Clelland-Stokes said the party’s membership was 65% black and 35% white. Clelland-Stokes said that at recent DA rallies less than 10% of the crowd has been white.
IFP spokesperson Blessed Gwala had another explanation: “White and other race groups besides the Africans do not attend rallies because it is not in their culture. We also have white, Indian and coloured supporters but they do not attend rallies.”
Leon and Buthelezi locked each other in a tight embrace after their respective speeches in Soweto. DA deputy leader Joe Seremane said the combination of an “ndlovu [elephant — Buthelezi] and of the lion [Leon]” was formidable enough to take on anyone.
The parties are to continue to function independently, explained the IFP’s Narend Singh, who serves on the five-a-side panel that deals with the Inkatha-DA relationship.
The parties are to field their respective candidates in all the constituencies. “We have to get our share of proportional representation,” said Singh. IFP branches are currently nominating candidates for the respective legislatures and Parliament. The final lists will only be compiled in January next year when the date of the general election is expected to be announced. The IFP’s national council will have the final say.
After the election the two parties will enter into a coalition arrangement, wherever plausible. This is most likely to happen in KwaZulu-Natal, which is currently run by an IFP, ANC and DA provincial government.
The IFP does not expect its new partnership to have a major impact on its relations with the ANC. Besides running KwaZulu-Natal with the ANC, the IFP serves in the ANC-led national government. Inkatha’s burgeoning relationship with the DA has been raised by the ANC in its past meetings with the IFP.
Inkatha national spokesperson Musa Zondi said: “There is an understanding that the relationship [with the ANC] is not a mutually exclusive one. As the IFP we would not sit comfortably with the SACP [South African Communist Party], which is the ANC’s coalition partner.”
ANC national spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama said his party’s relationship with the IFP remained unchanged.